2K Is Teasing A New Game In A Major Franchise

Coming off their recent release of Mafia 3, 2K has been silent on the front of big new titles. However, with E3 just around the corner, things could be picking up for Take-Two's subsidiary, as they tease a brand new game within a major franchise.

As part of Take-Two's financial report, they indicated that not only do they have a new open-world title on the way from Rockstar Games in the form of Red Dead Redemption 2, but they also announced that they have a "highly anticipated" new title from one of 2K's biggest franchises.

Now, since they just released Mafia 3 last fall, and I doubt they're talking about any of the annual outings form the 2K Sports line, this leaves us with two brands that have clout under the 2K Games label: BioShock and Borderlands.

VG 24/7 points to the history of Borderlands 3's development and comments from Gearbox Software's president Randy Pitchford, which seems to very much point to a new game in the series being on the way.

Besides, the Borderlands series absolutely does fit into the category of being highly anticipated. Whether or not that's actually what's going to be on display as the next 2K Games title they publish remains to be seen, but it wouldn't be out of the ordinary to see it make an appearance at E3 this year.

Beyond that there's also the possibility of maybe seeing another BioShock game, given that it's also one of the big games that 2K has under their label. The last sequential outing in the franchise took place back in 2013 with BioShock: Infinite. Since then, they've only had remastered re-releases.

A new BioShock title could be a breath of fresh air if it's done right and features some actual innovative gameplay. It's been four years since the last game and that would definitely be enough time to announce the new title, especially at E3. A 2018 fall release would give them a total of five years on the cycle, and that's about the average time it takes to make a big new game possibly running on new tech.

While there are other franchises under the 2K label, such as The Darkness and Sid Meier's games, they've already recently released Civilization VI just last fall, and The Darkness certainly hasn't been relevant for years.

Additionally, 2K's other big franchise, XCOM, already had its sequel made available on the market last year in early 2016.

Most people suspect that the next game from 2K that fits into the AAA category would be Borderlands 3. Additionally, Pitchford demonstrated an Unreal Engine 4 demo at GDC, and Gearbox's FPS series has traditionally run on the Unreal Engine. So, it definitely seems like that could be the direction they're aiming for.

Whether or not the new game will launch this fall is up in the air, but they're likely not going to launch the game in early 2018 since that slot is reserved for Red Dead Redemption 2. So, whatever they announce, whether at E3 or elsewhere, it will likely be penned in for release for late 2017 or late 2018.